HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference- 11.24.25 | AZ Cardinals

HC Jonathan Gannon Press Conference- 11.24.25 | AZ Cardinals

Okay. Um, on the injury front, um, like I talked about last night, Walt has a knee. Will Hernandez has a hip. I think I said oblique has a hip. Um, and then some other bumps and bruises that we’ll continue to evaluate. As far as the guys that were down um because they were not healthy enough to play u making good progress and we’ll see how those guys go through the week. Uh they were in here today. Uh watched the tape with them, pointed out some things and um got to get better from this tape. Got to get better from this tape. Couple plays here and there that we got to make. And so now we’ll get on to Tampa. What were some of those plays that stood out that you feel like you need to make? you know, I I I I kind of grouped them like uh I call them day one install um that I think that are kind of plays that we need to make a couple more of those whether it be schematic execution or technique. Um those showed up and and reared its head on a couple on all three phases really. So, we got to take care of those. You know, we’re getting here around Thanksgiving. Um, and that’s the game of football. Uh, but I’ve seen our guys do those things at a high level and you know, you just got to continue to do those at a high level. Do you have a sense yet of how serious Walt’s injury is? Um, on the last play of regula or the last sequence of regulation, looked like you guys were would have been set up to spike it with about 15 16 seconds left. You end up running a play, don’t get off till 11 seconds left. What went into the decision to run that play rather than spiking and maybe having two shots at the end zone? Yeah, I always think um you put pressure on the defense, especially after an explosive um to run a play and not get in the huddle. That’s one thing. Um I would have liked to see us, you know, looking back on it now where the clock was, would have liked to see us get it off a little bit quicker. Uh like you talked about yesterday, Teao, you’re right on that when I looked at it. Um, not that we were discombobulated, but when that ref starts backing out, you got to get that snapped if you’re going to have a chance for two plays down there. But, um, that’s it’s a it’s it can be preference. It can be always and never what you do in those situations. We talk about those constantly. You see people around the league do different things. Um, felt comfortable about it. would have liked to get off two there, you know, when we ended up getting the first one up and down six seconds. You know, my goal there is to kind of keep us out of harm’s way and go to overtime. Um, a couple more seconds on the clock, maybe you, you know, can get off another play, although probably what the defense is doing, you’re you’re going to end up having to sail it anyhow. So, um, tried to hit him by surprise and give a one-on-one ball to Mike. Uh, didn’t work out. But to your point, um, if you clock it there with that much time, you probably get two plays and we only got off one. You and Jacobe both said you were going for the win in overtime. What’s the difference between going for the win in overtime in regulation? Like, why not go for the win with 6 seconds instead of push it and then make that play at that point where you are with 6 seconds with no timeout. Um, I don’t, you know, depending what the defense does, I think you’re putting the team in harm’s way there, truthfully. um you seen a lot of things that can happen. Um not that you’re thinking something bad is going to happen, but when you put the team at risk because of what you’re trying to do, um you know, it can it can be a coin flip and I didn’t love it. Overall, how do you feel like you guys have done this year and even last year with your kind of end of game mechanics? I I’m thinking back to that third run against against Tennessee, but I know there’s way more plays than that. Like how do you feel you guys have done? Yeah, there’s a lot of them. Um, you know, the third and eight one I know we talked about play calling there. Um, you know, you’re, you know, there’s been play calling on defense, play calling on offense, execution on both, all three phases. There’s been mistakes by me, you know, uh, punt it, go for it, whatever you choose to do. You can always look at the end result and see if it works out because we’ve had some things that have worked out and we get back in here on a Monday and I’m like, man, that was I don’t know about that one, you know? Um, so you look at everything. It’s it’s it’s good, Teao. It’s it’s that’s ball, you know what I mean? And um, we spend a lot of time on that. Um, and I I think for the most part that we’ve definitely, you know, have messed some things up over the last three years, you know, but I think we hit more than we miss. I truthfully believe that. Um, and that’s completely on me. That’s my responsibility. So that’s why I put a lot of time into that. Um, and you never know how that, you know, what’s going to happen either. You know, you can assume one thing, you know, that’s, you know, what they did at the end of the half. They zeroed us twice in a row at the end of the half there. You know, you get a zero with trying to get an up and down ball twice on the 11. You know, you might not love that either. You know, you get a sack and you don’t get it to overtime and you don’t feel good about doing that. Why don’t you just kick it? You know what I mean? So, I get it. You know, there’s always a pro and a con to everything you do. when go. Um, so when you look at that final play when that ball was going to Weaver, Jacobe blamed himself for that throw. What did you see in that play? He probably blamed himself. What do you say? I could have put a touch less air and probably a little We could have shaved it a little thinner, I think, you know, because the the second guy in was in a double on the other side of the field. Um, but I I love the decision. I thought, you know, the two coverages that we were expecting, um, we knew that was going to be a one-on-one to to in my mind win the game. And then the pressures answers that you had if they decided to pressure us. Uh, you had one answer on the page, the mic, and the other answer on the page, 85. So, I I felt really good about that play and what we were doing there. when you when you have six losses by four points or less during a season and it kind of I don’t know at least from the outside looking in it kind of feels like groundhog day a little bit. Um what do you do? I know you don’t like to make like knee-jerk reactions with the coaching staff and everything but what do you think about changing some things up like not but just play calling duties different things like that to try to Yeah. I when we look at those games that you’re talking about we evaluate everything that we’re doing. Um, and then we implement certain things to try to fix problems that keep showing up over and over. Um, that’s what anybody would do. But, uh, I believe in our process and our people and to change for the sake of change to think you’re going to get a different result. I don’t I don’t believe in that where we’re at right now. Um, I think you know it those these games that are coming down to one score games, you can look at a couple plays here or there, but I you know I showed the defense the first drive, you know, of the game they’re backed up and five plays later it’s seven nothing and really not for anything schematically that they did. So, those are the things that I point out that it’s like, hey, let’s fix these day one install plays on a sail route, on a stretch play, on a four-way postwheel three out manto man zone beater that we’re in manto man. Let’s do those a little bit better. You know what I mean? So, um, and then in critical moments, can we do we have the right thought process and can we execute? Um, I think we have the right thought process and I’ve seen us execute. We just got to do it a little higher level. I know you said yesterday it was just a rotation at quarterback, but Max Melon only played 15 of 62 snaps. Will went into to that. It was a rotation and then he got nicked. Um he had to go in and look at the forearm, but um I think it a little bit of a change up. I think Krill’s earned the right to play a little bit. Denzel, I think, is doing a good job. Um and I thought Max, you know, for what he did in the game on defense, um played well. And then I thought he really impacted the game on fourth down too which helped us. What does he need to do better to to get back to certain person now? I think just consistency. You said you don’t want to make changes for the sake of making changes right now. Does that mean it could still be on the table at some point? Um today I’m thinking about today. Josh, no. I’ll kind of ask you this before this game, but but with Mike Lobby having another huge game. Is there a chance that you guys would would make some sort of tweaks to the offense to be able to get him more looks even when Marvin was back? Yeah. Throw it to the guys that are making plays for you. Absolutely. You said before his first opportunity as a wide receiver one two weeks ago that he had really impressed and kind of how he’s improved with his route running this year. What has he gotten better at as a route runner? Uh, I would think feel. and he’s he wants some plays back too on certain routes um that he’s been working on. I think of a couple off top of my head, but I think honestly just feel and playing the position, you know, and and um he’s a guy that uh whether the ball goes to him or not, he wins um at a pretty good clip. Um and that’s what you just say, you just stick with it. You keep winning your one-on- ones and when the ball comes to you, you’ll make the play. You know, I think of like Zay Weaver, too. It’s like he had multiple snaps in that game where he is open. He’s winning his one-on-one and the ball didn’t go to him. You know, Jacobe gets sacked on one, he has to, you know, move out of the pocket on another one. Um, they end up falling off of a route and kind of get underneath it, whatever the case may be. Receivers like get open and catch it, you know, and and that’s what, you know, you just keep harping on with those guys, they’ll keep winning. And Mike has done a really good job. And you know, he with Marv being out has kind of taken over that role of the one receiver and he’s gotten open and he’s caught it. You know, he’s playing well. When it comes to to Marv return, what’s kind of the process to get back from appendicitis procedure? Is there Yeah. When he’s physically and mentally healthy enough to play, he’ll play. Does he will he need a ramp up because of Yeah, we’ll we’ll always do what’s best for his health first for what’s best for him and then what’s best for the team. I think uh Kyler has to miss one more game on IR. Have you you know we haven’t talked about it in a couple weeks. So have you discussed with him a plan of maybe trying to come back and play this year or what would what’s kind of Yeah, I talk to K1 every day, you know, and he’s he’s working hard to get healthy, you know, that’s what he’s doing right now. He’s in every meeting. He’s staying he’s engaged. He’s he’s, you know, rehabbing a boatload of time in there. Um but I know he wants to play. Seems like Travis McBride brings a a level of intensity no matter what the score is, no matter what the record is. What does his attitude do for this team? He’s competitor. I mean, he’s he loves to play football and he’s a competitor. That’s what I think of him. When you ask me about Trey, like describe Trey to to somebody. It’s he’s a he competes, you know, snap in and snap out. And he’s he’s playing really well, you know. He really is. It’s uh I know he wants to do everything that he can to help us win football games and he’s detailed out. He practices the right way. He he prepares the right way and he goes out and plays, you know, and it’s the reason that we, you know, rewarded him with how we rewarded him. He’s a really good player. JJ, it sounds like or it seems like the ground game is a little stagnant right now. Just where do you want to see it and how can it get there? We got to get it going. We got to get it going. Yeah, it’s it’s a tough recipe to to throw the ball as much as we’re throwing it right now as and honestly as good as we’re throwing it, but when you drop back that many times, you’re you’re just asking to take negatives, you know, and that was one thing with the offense I showed today, you know, we had two drives where at worst is is a a very makeable field goal and we go backwards, you know, and and we knock ourselves out of points and that that’s, you know, not good. You know, that contributes to losing the game. You know, um, as it relates to the run game, uh, I think we have to be more efficient and we just got to we just got to do it a little bit better. You know, there’s some runs in there that I feel like are, you know, should go for six or seven and they’re going for three with the look and how we block it or the backs or what they’re doing. and all 11 go into the run game. But we have to be able to run it a little bit better than what we’re doing right now. And you know, I don’t whatever the stats are on Jacksonville and this is this is Jacksonville is a good team, a good defense. They got a really good run defense, too, you know. So I, you know, give them credit. Um, but I do think we have to run the ball better. Was Michael Carter’s workload yesterday? Was that a function of how he was playing? how his role in the offense and throwing the ball because he ended up I think he ended up with more snaps than Bam did. Yeah, I’m not quite sure. You know, Bam, he went out there too after the one. But, um, yeah, I think just, you know, there’s certain plays, certain groupings, certain play, you know, situations in the game, you know, with the twominute at the end of the half there. That was, I think, uh, jeez, a 17play drive, I want to say. Um we ended up missing the field goal there at at the end of the half, but um just kind of function how the game went. How much of the struggles in the run game does come down to you don’t have your top two guys out there? I, you know, I I think who’s ever out there, we have to execute better for us to win games, you know, and and that starts with, you know, me and the coaches putting them in good spots with what they do. Um, schematically, what we’re doing versus how they’re trying to defend. Um, what people we have versus the people that they have, what are the advantages and disadvantages. Um, and then just being detailed out throughout the week and making sure that we can function.

HC Jonathan Gannon addresses the media.

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